Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this season’s inaugural public viewing session in Grimsby, but I did get my telescope out for some solar and lunar viewing on the weekend. After a long and cold winter, the comparatively mild temperatures and clear skies were like a siren’s call, luring me out under the sky.

A week ago I treated myself to a new astro-toy; a Herschel wedge, for white light solar viewing. Both Saturday and Sunday afternoon offered opportunities to test it out, and after comparing different eyepiece and filter combinations, it gave spectacular views that I was very happy with.

Last night I took my scope out to see the Moon and Jupiter (here in east Hamilton there is very little deep sky that is appealing). Below you can see how nice the Moon was. Jupiter was spectacular in the eyepiece. Putting the camera at the prime focus yielded a very, very small orb, and although it is a less than stellar image, it is a reminder of how nice the viewing was last night. With the warm temperatures, reasonable early nights and clear skies, this is a great time of year to get out and see Jupiter and Venus. I look forward to hearing your reports.

The crater Copernicus is a crop of a much wider image, to show how much detail was visible last night.

Skies were clear and the ‘seeing’ was fantastic for our first public stargazing event of 2015. Club members shared detailed views of the Moon & Jupiter with passersby and visitors who came to the Niagara Gateway Tourism Centre.

Jim Wamsley had his telescope connected to the HAA’s video cam and flat screen. This is a great way to point out various lunar features to guests.

Bernie offered views of Comet Lovejoy through his refractor. Lise managed to find M42 in spite of the light pollution and mechanical problems with her scope’s mount.

I was impressed by spectacular views of the Moon & Jupiter through Tony’s & Mike’s refractors. It’s a treat to peer through a well made refractor.

My 6″ Skywatcher Dobsonian reflector is an excellent beginner’s scope and always a hit with people looking for their first telescope. I spent the evening showing several budding amateur astronomers how it works and what excellent views it provides.

I only managed to stay for a couple of hours before the cold wind got to me, but I enjoyed speaking to all the folks who came out to see us.Continue Reading

Here’s a shot I took of the Moon and Mars last night. They presented a lovely pairing low in the west just at dusk, while Venus shone brightly high above them. Go outside tonight and see how the Moon has traveled up much closer to Venus. (photo is hand held with 200mm lens)

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) passed within about a degree of open cluster NGC 457, the E.T. Cluster, the week of March 9, 2015. This image is from Monday March 9, 2015, approx. 9:00 pm to 9:55 pm from Caledonia ON.

M103, another open cluster, is visible at far right. The bright star Delta Cassiopeiae is near lower right. The red emission nebula, Sh2-188, is faintly visible near the comet. North is towards the lower right.

This was a lot of hard work processing this image; about a dozen iterations of layering and masking….. not including the gradient blending I had to do to flatten the field from side to side a bit better.

There was a time when young men and women stood on a shore and looked out to the horizon, imaging what new lives a ship might transport them to. They imagined new sights, new wonders and in their minds they imagined new worlds.

This summer, after travelling a decade through the dark and quiet of space, a small craft that bears a name that recalls these brave people, will truly see a new world. The New Horizons spacecraft will give us our first look at Pluto as just one of the many amazing sights that are in store for us in this golden age of space exploration.

This richly illustrated talk is suitable for all ages and takes us from Earth to Mars, the asteroids, Pluto and beyond as we look through the mechanical eyes of these far flung probes and are witness to these new sights, new wonders and new worlds.Continue Reading

Please note that John Gauvreau’s talk originally scheduled for March 13th has been postponed until April 10th. Don Pullen will instead be talking about unmanned space missions.

Space Science – The Journey Continues

Manned space missions have been confined to low-Earth orbit (LEO) for more than 40 years, a big disappointment to many. However, our exploration of space beyond LEO continues to grow with many exciting robotic missions. From the Great Observatories (Hubble, Compton, Chandra, Spitzer) to contributions by Europe, India and other countries, we continue to find new ways to explore the unknown and find answers to some of the most important questions to mankind. In this talk, Don will review a few of the amazing current and upcoming missions and explore some of the science that has been revealed (and several of the questions that remain).Continue Reading

Last night’s full moon was the smallest full moon of the year. We’ve heard it called the micro-moon ormini-moon. This March 5, 2015 full moon lies about 50,000 kilometers (30,000 miles) farther away from Earth than will the year’s closest full moon – the full supermoon and Northern Hemisphere’s Harvest Moon – on September 28. The March 5 moon is the year’s farthest full moon because full moon and lunar apogee – the moon’s farthest point in its monthly orbit – both fall on the same date.Continue Reading